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My chronicle looks great bigboom! Thanks for running the game for us! You did a stellar job keeping the pace running high despite that demoralizingly long space combat. And your creepy ship descriptions were awesome (particularly the unstoppable turret :>). I think I have the gist of the story of the ship, but please correct me if I'm wrong:
Hirix smokes twice as much on the way back as she did on the way out, trying to calm the frayed nerves from their exploration of the vessel. By the time they get back to report to Zigvigix, she's as professional as usual. "Zigs, I've got to warn you boss, Historia's no broad, to be played with gifts and concerts. Gal's a glaucite rod, if you know what I mean." Hirix pauses, weighing if she wants to expand on her thought. She waves a claw dismissively. "Nah, you just do you Zigs. I think I'm going to join the mementos from Struggle's Scholar on their trip to the Idari. Pay my respects." She extinguishes her cig. "You get another job, you know how to get me." She waves a lazy farewell to the eccentric exo-guardians leader. She catches up briefly with the rest of the team after the debriefing. "You lot held it together out there, even when things were looking rough." She nods grudgingly "And the job this time was a touch more serious than helping a floozy win a junkrace." With that final bit of dry mirth, she parts ways with the group.
Hirix lowers her dagger, but fires an extra shot of her laser pistol into the xill's head, just to make sure. As Lucas picks up the scarf, she nods. "That scrap right there's the last of the mementos. We stashed the model, the book, the datapad and the baton from the crew quarters. We have some of the captain's personal effects. And now we have a scarf from the pilot. We even have some grisly mementos from that android. I'd say we have everything." She peers at the console. If it seems straightforward to attach her communicator to download the data, she'll do so. If it looks like it'll take some technical skill, she'll leave it to those better versed in such things.
Hirix notes the pulses of energy and sends "I'd put good money on that being related to that storm outside. Let's wrap this business up." Her sending is practically confirmed once the bridge is opened and the storm shows up on the forward viewing platform.
Hirix is immediately wary of the body, examining it visually for any signs that its another of those foul ghostly undead. Furthermore, she keeps an eye open for an undamaged and powered terminal that could be used to retrieve the Bulwark data the group had come for.
Hirix can't help but shudder at the sight once the driftdead falls. "Dirty business this, setting the risen dead back to rest. Hardly a wonder why they shut it in here." Hirix searches through the room for any other relevant evidence. Ultimately she picks up the battery, battle harness and force field upgrade, though the offers the last one to Lucas. She flicks her antennae in his direction and grudgingly sends "You did good back there buster. Kept your head 'in the game', you'd say. You'll need this shield too, in case we come across any more of those things." She heads over to the engine room and installs the additional battery before returning to the grisly mess hall.
Hirix shakes herself free from the mind-addling effect on her, sending out a dryly irritated "Damned spooks" as she brings her laser pistol to aim at the remnant of Yotto. She watches the creature carefully, analyzing its movements to predict the moment right before it moves in to strike. She fires right as its next lunge creates an opening.
Hirix strides into the room with only a little hesitation. She had expected carnage and while this was not quite what she'd imagined, it wasn't entirely unexpected either. "A real sick perp behind this mess. Alien or spirit or whatever it is, it has a taste for blood." She steps over to the door further to the fore and inspects it to check if it can open (but she doesn't try to open it). She's expecting the creature the crew sealed in their captain's suit to be somewhere nearby. The party would be sitting ducks if it returned while they were searching around the room. She also listens at the door for any sounds coming from what she assumes is the bridge.
Once comfortable that the room won't be assaulted immediately, she heads on over to the two kasatha. With her suit sealed, she's not too afraid of touching them and turning them over to work out how and why they died. She'll also check to see if they have any identifying items on them.
Hirix slowly sizes the door up. "Looks like our stroll through the park is about done. The crew trapped that thing on the other side of this door, and we're going to need to get in. Time to release the beast, heh?" Her mental tone is wry, but you feel an undercurrent of enthuasiasm at the prospect. She heads back over to the sparring room and inspects the robot there for any removable battery packs. If she finds some, she takes them out and brings them over to the engine room to patch in the power needed to open the door to the fore-section of the ship.
Hirix involuntarily sends out a mental grunt of disgusted surprise and immediately aims her pistol at the shower head. When the blood is quickly washed away into the drain, she lowers her pistol, but still looks around the room warily. "What in the hells was that? Someone stuff the ship's water reclamation with rotting stiffs?" Hirix lets a little bit of the outside air into the suit to smell if the blood is for real. And also to try to tell how fresh it is.
She seals back up and joins Twik in searching the lavatory. In particular, she's looking for any loose or discarded id cards/security passes.
As she works she responds to Twik "I'd put my creds on that robot running on its own power. Internal battery-" She pulls herself upright from where she was searching beneath a sink, snapping one of her claws together. "'Course. There's our spare battery."
"On second thought, with that storm coming in, we'd as soon get torn apart by the storm as reroute anything. If we find ourselves a battery or some other power source, we could hook that in instead." Hirix pulls away from the bank of busted batteries and does a sweep of the room, searching for spare power sources or anything else hidden among the damaged equipment.
Hirix heads on into the engine room, her antennae surveying every surface for important clues for solving what may have happened here. She inspects the cable first, trying to evaluate if it has been broken as part of the damage done to the ship, or if it was intentionally severed. Next, she looks at the stacks of batteries to check them for damage or sabotage. Finally, she looks at the control module and quickly checks it for backup power sources.
After completing her inspection, Hirix spins her laser pistol and thinks about the setup here. She's hardly an expert on ship power systems, but this one seems laid out clearly enough. After a minute, she sends to the others "Engine's still grinding, but not a lot of power up for grabs. Seems like it's just able to keep the life support, that force field on the cargo bay, and the ship's doors running. Not a drop more juice left over." She crosses her arms "Backup batteries for the Mess and Bridge, we haven't seen either one mind you, are straight busted. I reckon we could do some fancy wiring to drop power from that force field and send it to those two instead. If we needed to, that is."
When Hirix's sweep of the room leads to her finding the android limbs she lets out an audible click of her mandibles "You see this?" She jabs a claw in the direction of the limbs "The perp behind this sure isn't just a ghost. And they had enough reasoning to hide the limbs in this crate here. That's a sign of something thinking, not a mindless undead." She also inspects the damaged room as a whole and sends "Looks to me like they hit something big and dense while Drifting. A bit of some other plane floating in there. These saps were damned unlucky." After a final look around the room, Hirix leads the way to the center of the craft.
At Kali's obvious statement, Hirix continues with "A damned serious hole if I ever saw one." "This Blue Sky is looking like a shady character all of a sudden. I thought it was the sparring robot, but no sparring robot would be out lowering the ship's shields. Maybe Blue Sky is an android, maybe not." She eyes the spilled android fluids around the breach in the ship. "Or maybe the android went out with the tide." "Let's see the rest of this crime scene." Hirix turns away from the breached cargo bay and starts towards the central hallway. Once she gets there she inspects the hallway as well as each of the two side doors for any dangers or traps.
When Hirix picks up the datapad, she notices there are open message logs, and ends up putting in a battery from her comm unit to keep it powered. She beckons the others over to read the records left by Teliu with her. Once read, she passes the datapad on to anyone who wants to take a closer look. She stands in place in the center of the room and thinks to herself about this new information. "Grim piece of work, this is. But at least the fog's clearing up for me." As she takes a last look around the room she continues "So here's the flat, as far as I've got it: Unlucky saps picked something up in the drift, some mad ghost or spirit, and got the ship mighty banged up too. Spirit must've clamped onto one of their crew, this Yotto, and ended up trying to kill the other members." She shakes her head in disagreement with her own conclusions. "No, Yotto probably died when the ship got smashed in the Drift. Either way, the spirit went after everyone else, and they trapped it in the captain's quarters. From that sound we heard coming in, the damn monster is still there." "Other than the trinkets here, we'd be right to pick up something from the captain and the pilot too. As for Blue Sky, I figure that's that bot over port-side." "No matter how you roll it, we'll be near where they managed to pin that spirit. Hope you louts are ready for that." Hirix's mental tone betrays that she's not as ready for it as she'd like to be.
"I'll take your word for it Kali. If that's the case, the crew who were living here knew they were doomed. So it wasn't something that hit them while they were in the dark..." Hirix mulls over the facts as she uses bedding to create pouches that contain each of the items left behind. She stows the set of bundles in her pack. Once done, she searches around the room for any other evidence. When the lockers prove to be difficult to open she points them out to the others and focuses her attention of searching nooks and crannies for any spare key-cards.
Seeing the fore-side door is well sealed, Hirix turns her attention to the aft-side. Her antennae twitch as she considers the evidence laid out before her. "Trumps are falling into place boys. Falling into place..." She grips her pistol "I figure our kasatha friend in that video might've dragged himself in that room and sealed the door up tight. Making sure he didn't get followed by whatever that thing was. Let's find ourselves a way to bust in." She checks the aft-side door for any traps and then opens it up.
Hirix itches to get a smoke going as she watches the recorded footage. "Seems we're dealing with a ghoul or something. Or worse, an infection. Or double worse, some kind of alien spirit. Whatever it is, it's going to make recovering the bodies and personal effects a real honest pain in the ass." She eyes the equipment Kali has managed to scavenge and continues by sending "Someone with a bit of muscle should take that force baton. We might need it against a spirit or two out here." Hirix herself picks up a commando serum, though when she realizes she'll need to lower the environmental seals to drink it, she merely stows it for now. With another suspicious glance for the robot with its lights, she turns to leave the room. "Unless you got a beef with it, I'd leave that hunk of metal alone. Let's take a gander at the other end of this trail of blood." Along the was south Hirix will keep her antennae roving for any more traps or unexpected dangers.
Hirix is about to leave when a broken holoprojector in the ceiling catches her eye. "Only sign of a struggle here is that hunk of metal up there." she points at a shuriken lodged in the holoprojector. "Maybe there's some evidence..." She steps in, reaching or jumping up to dislodge the shuriken and look at it more closely. She also mentions "The holoprojector might've recorded the tussle that happened here. Think you can patch it up Ketch?"
Hirix unintentionally broadcasts a mental -snerk- at Lucas' comment. And while she's tempted to respond with some banter, the presence of the robot and absence of a body seem more critical to resolve. Hanging at the entrance to the room, she casts a long look around to analyze the 'crime scene' and determine what may have happened here to cause so much blood to be caked along the floor. She also inspects the robot to try to evaluate what role it may have played.
She offers a mental "No bodies and no ship's logs here, and I don't fancy tangling with that robot. How about we skip this joint and look somewhere else?"
Hirix eyes the revealed corridor warily. "Worse than I thought. We got ourselves a right horror show." Before proceeding, she thinks to the scream she just heard and tries to recall if she knows what kind of creature could have produced it.
She also carefully inspects the gun placement. Even with diminished power, the automated defenses could still be active after all.
Assuming everything is in order, Hirix peers up and down the length of the long hall. She reaches for a cigarette before she realizes that she's going to have to wait until she can disengage the environmental seals on her armor. Instead she merely spins her laser pistol to keep her hands busy. "Something dragged one of the crew an awful long distance. I can't tell why yet, but it stinks of something smart. Might still be around."
Hirix follows after Lucas, drawing her laser pistol. The flashing warning lights worry her less than Lucas, instead her analytical brain immediately starts trying to puzzle out why the airlock was already open. 'Did they eject something into space and then not close the airlock?' She inspects their surrounds for signs of damage to the interior of the chamber, and also thinks about what the specific warning pattern means for kasathan-origin vessels.
"Damn rig's gotten rubbed out by something, looks like a wreck to me. Might as well take a flutter at it before that storm pulls in though. I don't like the way its crackling." Hirix quickly brings the Drake up alongside the Struggle's Scholar, opting to avoid the spacewalk. She activates the environmental seals on her armor during the final approach. As the airlocks fit in place she sends "Pack some heat boys, could be trouble inside."
"That vesk, what a screwball! We pop his rig full of holes and he's feeling swell." A burst of mental laughter crosses to the rest of the crew. Hirix releases the ship's controls, pops out a cigarette and lights up. "We got our prize fair and square, and we aren't even a flaming wreck. I think we can call this a success" -------- Once the distress beacon is decoded she immediately starts punching in the included coordinates. "Maybe we got a chance still to fish these lugs out of a tight spot. Even if we don't, we've got to keep that info out of anyone else's mitts. Ready?" She starts warming the engines up, and if there's no other discussion, she sends the ship to the Struggle's Scholar.
The only thing that came to my mind while we we've been fighting it was that the HP for both ships could probably safely be halved. But since this is my first proper ship combat, I have no idea what other problems that might cause. More importantly, I'm not sure if you could make a change like that in Society play. Though I do have to say, you've been doing an amazing job of keeping us chugging through the rounds bigboom. I'll be stealing your format when I run one of these. :>
Question about starship movement: The Honorbound's movement this round started with:
I assume based on the other movement this round, the Honorbound succeeded on their maneuver check, which reduced their distance before turning to 1. But I don't see how it managed to reduce it to 0 to get that first turn in. The only thing I can think of is that straight distance from previous rounds counts towards your minimum straight distance before a turn. Is that right?
Still queasy from that mangled loop just moments ago, Hirix sends to her crew "Alright, alright, no more tricky stuff. This rig's going to keep on the straight and narrow from now on."
Hirix deftly guides the Drake through the asteroid field in a wide arc, taking advantage of the cover of the asteroids all the way until the ship is head to head with the Honorbound. "Alright kid, you've got your shot, don't screw this up." her mental voice rings in Lucas and Kali's heads.
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